Rejected and Pregnant I Fled The Pack novel Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

+15 Bohus

I spent the rest of that day and long into the night building exactly that case, going through every incident systematically, cross-referencing dates, pulling testimony from Marcus and the other enforcer who’d refused my father’s order at the hospital, documenting my mother’s calls describing the pressure she and Marissa had faced. By the time exhaustion finally forced me to stop, somewhere past three in the morning, I had something that felt, if not certain, at least substantial.

I didn’t sleep much. Every time I closed my eyes, I found myself thinking of Evelyn back in that small apartment above the diner, Willow sleeping in the bassinet beside her, both of them entirely dependent on the outcome of a room full of wolves I couldn’t fully predict.

*I hope this goes in my favor.*

The thought circled through my mind relentlessly, stripped of any real confidence behind it. I’d spent my entire life assuming succession was simply mine, inevitable, guaranteed by birthright and tradition. I’d never actually had to fight for it before, never had to build an argument for why I deserved to keep something rather than simply accepting it was owed to me. There was something strange, almost clarifying, about finally having to earn it instead.

I thought of my father too, turning over Callum’s warning from days earlier-that underneath all his talk of stability, what actually terrified him was losing control. I understood that fear a little better now, sitting alone in my office at three in the morning with the weight of tomorrow pressing down on me. Losing control was terrifying. I’d spent eight months learning exactly how terrifying, watching Evelyn slip further and further from my reach with every failed tracker report.

The difference, I told myself, was what I intended to do about that fear. My father had spent thirty years trying to eliminate any threat to his control entirely-driving my mother into silent submission, trying to force Evelyn back through pressure and enforcers, treating every person around him as a variable to be managed rather than a person with their own right to choose. I refused to keep operating that way, whatever it cost me tomorrow.

Morning arrived too fast, grey light filtering through my office windows before I’d fully processed that I hadn’t slept at all. I showered, dressed in the formal attire council sessions required, and stood in front of my office mirror for a long moment, steadying myself before the day ahead.

My phone buzzed. Evelyn.

*Thinking of you today. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. Willow says good luck too, in her way—mostly just spit-up on my shoulder this morning, but I’m choosing to interpret it as encouragement.*

Despite everything, despite the exhaustion and the dread sitting heavy in my chest, I found myself smiling at the screen, something steadying settling into me at the simple fact that she’d reached out at all, unprompted, on a morning like this.

*Tell her thank you,* I typed back. *I’ll call the second it’s over. Whatever happens, I meant what I said last night. I’m coming back to you both.*

I pocketed the phone and made my way toward the council chambers, Callum falling into step beside me in the hallway, both of us silent, the weight of everything ahead of us too heavy for easy conversation.

The chamber doors stood closed ahead of us, and beyond them, I knew, my father was already seated, prepared, thirty years of practiced authority ready to be leveraged against me one final time.

“Ready?” Callum asked quietly, pausing just outside the doors.

I thought of Evelyn’s apartment, warm and small and entirely hers, built from nothing while I’d been chasing

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Chapter 42

+15 Bohus

dead ends for months. I thought of Willow’s small hand curling around my finger, of my mother’s cracked, exhausted voice on the phone, of Marissa’s baby crying in some cabin miles away. I thought of everything my father’s version of control had already cost the people I loved, and everything it still stood to cost if I let him win this one final time.

“No,” I admitted honestly. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m doing this anyway.”

Callum nodded, and together we pushed through the chamber doors, into whatever waited on the other side.

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